Why are harmonics on guitar easier with distortion?
Background
Something I’ve noticed playing electric guitar is that natural harmonics are easier to achieve under heavy distortion. For the sake of disambiguation, when I use the word harmonic, I mean plucking a string at the same time as you release your finger from the string at a particular fret, producing a noise like a ringing bell.
To elaborate on the phenomena, playing harmonics on the acoustic guitar is typically hard for me unless they’re performed at the 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 ratios (12th, 7th, and 5th) fret. Still, the 12th is easier than the 7th and the 7th is easier than the 5th. Going further toward the nut is much more difficult (at least for me personally).
Playing electric guitar on a clean setting is mostly the same as the acoustic. However, as soon as gain is increased a little on the electric, the harmonics become easier. Using an effects pedal meant for playing metal music, the most intense distortion I have, the harmonics that are hardest to achieve are now easy. Playing at the second fret produces an extremely loud sound, even louder than playing a note normally.
Running Ideas
The best attempt at an answer I have at the moment is that the distortion pedals add frequencies that could resonate with the imperfectly played harmonic (those closer to the nut are harder to achieve) and produce positive feedback to make the note ring louder. However, I tested this by playing a recording of the cleanly played harmonic into the amp, and the distortion still had the same effect. This is a contradiction because the guitar is not live in this scenario to create the positive feedback. So, this effect is plausible but negligible at best.
My other idea is that the plucking noise of a harmonic is drowned out by the pedal which produces a sort of ambient fuzz, while the note is compressed to ring loudly. However, this is just my best guess.
Any ideas?
(3)3 Comments
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Define what you mean by "easier"? I have never experienced this in my life and I've played guitar for over 40 years. It is perhaps possible that some effects accentuate the higher overtones of a plucked note making them more "trebley" but the mechanics of creating a true harmonic are not in any way enhanced by effects. I can generate them just as easily and with sustain on a classical guitar.
Distortion has a compressing effect- you may notice that noise gets louder when you turn up your gain, while (after a point) the guitar does not get that much louder since you're pushing up against the "ceiling" created by your distortion circuit. It's not just the noise that gets louder, but every quiet sound, including harmonics.
Here's a demonstration of @Tetsujin 's conjecture- you will hear a dry sampled guitar sound, then that sound through (cheesy) distortion, then that sound through compression. You will notice that the harmonic rings out clearly even without distortion, if there is enough compression.
Combine that effect with the added harmonics that distortion adds and you can easily get clear harmonics. Distortion doesn't really make harmonics easier to play, but it will help your harmonics (even if played less than perfectly) ring out clearly.
Distortion greatly amplifies harmonics relative to the basic frequency, so naturally if you play harmonics through a distortion pedal, their volume will be much higher than without it.
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